P-5 News

At assemblies we regularly recognise and appreciate the talent and expertise of our musicians, we applaud and support our talented students who achieve highly in sport, in chess and in other artistic endeavors. This week Year 1S under the tutelage of Mr. Lake, entertained us with a rendition of a Jack Johnson’s song about the 3R’s, Reducing, Reusing and Recycling.  At assembly I also discussed with the students the importance of applying those principles at school, home and in fact wherever we are. At lunch and morning tea it was great to see a number of students arming themselves with bags and moving around the College collecting rubbish.  If we all individually approach the problems facing the environment with “I can do it” attitude, collectively, we have the power to make significant improvements to our beautiful local, national and global environments.    

P-2 Cross Country

All students in Years Prep-2 have been busily training for the P -2 Interhouse Cross Country which will be held on Wednesday 20^th June starting at 1.45pm. A letter giving details of the event was sent home this week. All parents are warmly invited to attend and support their children’s participation in the event.

Emotional Resilience 

The development of Emotional Resilience in children is important. Emotional Resilience means knowing how to stop yourself getting extremely angry, down or worried when something ‘bad happens.’  It means being able to calm down and feel better when you get very upset. nThis week I would like to continue to share some strategies from the You Can Do It program which may help eliminate or help to balance the negative mindsets that detract from children developing resilience.

To Eliminate “I Can’t Do It”

In order to combat this form of negative, pessimistic thinking, explain to your child that he/she has a choice in how to think about things that have happened and about things in the future.  Explain that when something bad happens, such as getting a bad grade or being rejected or teased by a classmate, your child can think negative thoughts or positive thoughts.

• Examples of Negative “I Can’t Do It” thoughts: “I can’t do this.  No one likes me.  I’m not good at anything.  It’s all my fault.  Things will never change.  I’ll always be hopeless with friends/in my work”.
• Examples of Positive “I Can Do It” Thoughts: “Next time things will be different.  Maybe I did not try hard enough or behaved stupidly.  I know that if I do things differently, including trying harder, the next time I am more likely to be successful than to fail”.

Explain to your child that an “I Can’t Do It” Type of Thinking leads him/her to feeling very down when bad things happen and can cause him/her to stop trying and withdraw.

Other suggestions for eliminating a child’s negative Type of Thinking called “I Can’t Do It” including the following.

• Encourage your child when faced with difficult work to think of the last time he/she was successful at doing something he/she did not think he/she could do.  Then, encourage your child to think: “I did it before, I can do it again.”
• Evaluate your child’s progress based on the amount he/she has learned rather than comparisons with other children.
• Praise your child at those times when he/she continues working towards achieving goals/finishing work after experiencing difficulty or setbacks.
• Remind your child before commencing a difficult task of eliminating from his/her thinking the ‘I Can’t Do It’ type of thinking and developing the mindset that ‘I will probably be successful.’
• Model for your child the two types-of-thinking about doing something difficult.  For example, you could say, ‘Now I have to learn more about how to use a computer.  I can think: ‘I’m hopeless at doing these things. I’ll probably never learn it’ or ‘If I try my best, I’ll probably be successful.’ You should discuss the different impact these two types-of-thinking will have on your feelings and motivation to learn about computers.

Mr David Druery, Head of Staff and Students P-5